The Action's in Jersey

By

Terry Teachout

Updated July 1, 2004 12:01 a.m. ET

Millburn, N.J.

I'd go a long way to see "Guys and Dolls." In fact, it's on my select list of musicals that never fail to give pleasure, even when performed by amateurs. Except for the misbegotten 1955 film version, in which Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra shamed themselves as Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit, I've yet to see an impossibly bad production. Frank Loesser's brassy score is a miracle of consistency -- only "Annie Get Your Gun" has a higher standards-to-filler ratio -- and Abe Burrows and Jo...